^I'm sure they'll be discussing the Ramsay/"Arya" betrothal this year (it comes up at the end of A Storm of Swords, after all), but the actual wedding at Winterfell and subsequent events seems destined for season five. With Michael McElhatton saying he's not in this season much, they probably aren't pushing beyond the third Reek chapter, if even that far.

What's weird to me about Martin's comments is not so much the denial (he's good at denial, as an array of blown self-imposed deadlines suggests) as the fact that the show's writers haven't snapped him out of it yet. Surely they've told him by now, when they're probably about halfway through writing season five, what their actual gameplan is? They usually meet with him this time of year or earlier to outline what they're doing with the season.

On another board someone suggested GRRM pretty much knows the show is going to pass him and seems to be deflecting the blame a little. It's impossible for him not to realize that and not to realize that HBO is not going to wait up for him. He worked in television for over a decade before he wrote the first GOT book. He knows the game.

HBO is not going to wait for him to finish up because he's proven incapable of moving his ass and spends too much time world-building. There's too much money and there's only so long they can hold the actors to their contracts, especially the younger ones who are all starting to (or have) reached 18. Ideally, GRRM needs a more aggressive editor that's not going to coddle him but that's not going to happen.